It does us good to reflect on the movement of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel accounts (Cf. GMD 65-67) and how Jesus allowed himself an openness to that Spirit.

The bishops offer a conclusion:

68. We, bishops and Catholic people, are all led by this same Spirit who would stir up the faithful in our land to bring about a new and powerful evangelization. With Jesus, we undertake this journey, knowing that he is with us and his Spirit can never fail.

69. Jesus came to set this fire upon the earth, until all is ablaze in the love of God. We pray this fire will come upon us as disciples as we, led by the Spirit, carry out Christ’s great commission to go and make disciples of all the nations.

Traditional Catholicism speaks of the imitation of Christ. Are we so inward-focused that we look passively to our own privations and seek the commonality with the Lord’s Passion? Most of us haven’t done the reaching out the Lord showed to merit a full comparison. But the imitation should certainly extend to Jesus’s basic approach. We can listen for the Holy Spirit. We can respond to the urgings, even when we are “driven” (Cf. Mark 1:12) into the desert. We can seek companions, living and sharing faith in a more open and active way.

It’s a good place to be, as we head into the second half of Go and Make Disciples. Which we’ll look at over the next few weeks.

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About catholicsensibility

Todd lives in the Pacific Northwest, serving a Catholic parish as a lay minister.